Fear No Fear

(All scripture from Lexham English Bible, Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software)

We continue with God’s call for us to be holy as He is holy. In this section we see three elements of that holiness. All of them are needed if we are going to be holy. We see the showbread, which speaks of the Way we need to go (or Torah). The menorah, which speaks of the Light of God – and always illuminated the showbread. The incense that was before the veil, which speaks of our prayers – that consistent communication with the Father.

The Israelites were commanded to bring PURE olive oil from crushed olives, beaten until nothing but oil remained. This represented the pure desire for obedience that they were to cultivate. Like little children trusting their parent immediately and without argument because of the loving trust they have. It is this oil, refined through a somewhat brutal process, that lights the lamp. The light of God’s Word is the light that shines out of us as believers in the New Covenant.

The lamp was always to be maintained. It was never to be allowed to go out. From evening to morning, it was to be maintained. This idea of darkness to light is a common one in creation. Creation is full of reminders from God that although we fell into darkness, He is always working to move us toward His Light – if we will cooperate with Him. Evening leading to morning as the trajectory of a day. Common days of the week leading to Sabbath. The month starting in darkness (lunar calendar – the moon has no light of its own, but relies on the sun to reflect light) and ending in the light of the full moon. The solar cycle starts in the winter (equinox) and ends in the summer (solstice). They all remind us of what God is doing.

The showbread was to be made from fine flour. Twelve loaves, each made from a gallon of flour. They were to be arranged on the golden table in two rows of six each. Frankincense was also to be laid out in the rows. On Sabbath, new loaves were put out and the old loaves given to the priests as holy food to be eaten in a holy place – while the frankincense was burnt on the incense altar in place of it.

Next we leap to what SEEMS like an odd event. Blasphemy. The son of a mixed pairing (Egyptian father and Israelite mother) got into a scuffle and used the name of God as a curse (the YHVH or Yahweh name). That he knows it shows he had some knowledge of God. Which means, considering he MUST have come out of Egypt with them as part of the mixed multitude (Exodus 12:38).

The Rabbis tell a story about him. It isn’t in scripture, but may have been passed down as an oral teaching. Who knows. But working from the meanings of the names that are given: the mother’s name was peace, daughter of word of God. The Word of God brings peace that we teach to our children – but she had clearly not (perhaps from the influence of the father). The child SHOULD have been steeped in the instruction of God – child being a young man of adult age.

Who knows if that was the relationship, but the people seized the young man and held him prisoner. This wasn’t a mob acting wildly. The question was what to do with him. They’d just been told to treat foreigners well (Exodus 23:9). But also told to treat them like themselves (Leviticus 19:33-34). How much did their laws apply to them? If you cursed God, you bore the consequences of your sin because you know better.

What happens to him seems harsh, but consider that God was being merciful. God needed to show them what sin does (Romans 6:23) so that they never forgot it and chose not to sin. Remember that Jesus was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world (spiritually), which is the restraining force keeping sin from killing us immediately (Hebrews 1:3). If we aren’t shown the effects of sin and what it does, we will indulge ignorantly and get in SERIOUS trouble.

Blasphemy is yes, the taking the name of God in vain or swearing by it but acting falsely. Blasphemy is yes, the defiling of His name. Blasphemy is yes, the mocking of God or putting God on the same level as idols and pagan gods. But it is MORE THAN THAT. Numbers 15:30 clearly states that blasphemy is knowing the correct thing to do, but not doing that thing. The penalty for blaspheming is death, cut off from the people – in this case by stoning. This principle is not lifted in the New Covenant which clearly tells us that to know what is right and to not do it is sin (James 4:17).

God is trying to replace our broken thinking with His thinking. If we don’t live up to what He’s given us, He can’t give us more. If we go against what we have, it leads to death (Romans 6:23). It’s not about what we don’t know. It’s about what we do once we DO know.

If you strike a person and they die, you are killed. Capital punishment for murder against community. If you strike and kill an animal, though, you paid restitution. There is a difference between animals and people.

Eye for an eye. What does it mean? Well, some think it was literal and that WOULD be a way to VERY QUICKLY teach people the principle of sin leading to death and QUICKLY get compliant action from the people – but it wouldn’t change their hearts. Others say it speaks to payment of restitution for injury, but in a just way. An eye for an eye not a leg for an eye, etc. This would use the system already set down for restitution for injury (Exodus 21:26, for example). Either way it was meant as a shock to their system to get them to see the seriousness of sin (as a thing and individual sins) and what they were doing to each other, in order to get a heart like God’s and seek to act so that no one got hurt or suffered injury (a forgiving spirit devoid of selfishness).

What is He trying to teach them over and over? “Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4). Sin is a lack of the Word in our hearts. It’s through our transgressions of God’s laws of love that we lose our freedoms, our Blessing, our protection, and our health – we move away from Him. We write the Word on our heart (Romans 12:2) – repenting and seeking His face (Matthew 6:33) – to get back into harmony with Him: where we get back all we lost (John 14:15; 1 John 1:9-10).

“Then Yahweh spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, “Speak to the Israelites, and say to them, ‘When you come into the land that I am about to give to you,then the land shall observe a Sabbath for Yahweh.” (Leviticus 25:1-2)

You what’s terrible about being a true slave? No rest. No days off. God’s people were to be slaved only to HIM. One to another, as a nation, they were to be FREE. We come across a word translated slave, but it is not the African Slave Trade we know and loathe today. Or the slaves of the Roman Empire. THESE slaves were indentured servants. People who willingly sold themselves into temporary service because of their horrific financial situation. They could be redeemed. They got out of it after a period of time. They were to be treated well, like a hired worker who could leave any time if abused. And if you were caught kidnapping anyone or having in your possession one kidnapped? You were put to death. God’s people were FREE people and as such, were entitled to rest – the weekly Sabbath Day (plus some more).

Every seven years there would be a sabbath for the land as well. God takes pleasure in caring for His creation. There would be a year in which there would be no pruning, planting, or gathering for sale or storage. Whatever the land produced, it produced. It could be gathered for personal food by foreigners, the poor, the owners of the fields, the animals, whomever. They were to take only what they were going to eat – no storage for later. Very reminiscent of the mana in the desert (Exodus 16:32-34).

Every seventh sabbath would have a sabbath. It was announced on Yom Kippur that the next year would be a sabbath. On this year the same sabbath of the land would be in place, BUT God promised that on year six you would have such an increase in harvest that it would last for three years (the time it would take to sabbath, plant, and then get a harvest you could eat). It was a cycle of 49 years (7 x 7) because the Jubilee year (as it was called) was both the 50th year and the 1st year of the next cycle.

Why Jubilee? Because everything was reset. If you had been forced to sell land in order to survive, it would revert to your family in this year. The land was returned because the Lord was owner of the land. The people didn’t really own it. They were stewards. Visiters. Foreign squatters in His service. He owned the land period. This is a great principle to get ahold of, because if you truly realise that God owns everything you will never be owned by your possessions. You’ll be able to live in the lap of luxury or give away every single thing including the clothes on your back without blinking an eye. We are only stewards of things in this world (and the world itself). God owns everything and is our source for everything. Amen.

They were not to exploit each other. The time remaining until Jubilee was factored into the pricing of fields – since the worth of the field was in how many harvests they would get before the land reverted. Houses in walled cities had no land attached to them, so they could be redeemed the year you sold it but not past that. They didn’t revert in Jubilee. This gave foreigners some security when buying somewhere to live. Rural based houses (unwalled cities) had land attached, so they reverted. These measures were really to keep things balanced in the land in the long run. Those in financial difficulty couldn’t lose their ancestral heritage forever. No one individual or group of individuals could get a monopoly over tracks of land. Keeping Jubilee return in mind altered the price or worth of every property (except houses in walled cities) and person’s service depending on where in the Jubilee cycle you were. An exception was made for the Levites who didn’t HAVE a heritage of land (Deuteronomy 18:1-8). They had a permanent right of redemption for things sold – including houses in walled cities. Also, you were NOT to take interest from money loaned to the poor OR make a profit from food sold to them.

Individual Israelite servants were NOT to be considered slaves. They were to be treated as employees. At Jubilee they were released and got to go out to freedom WITH their kids (even the awl servants of Deuteronomy 15:17 who served past the regular sabbath year). All of the people of the Promised Land belonged to Yahweh. Yahweh owns ALL people PERIOD. We as employers or masters are just borrowing them. People are WORKERS, not PROPERTY.

There were times of war with other nations when you had the option of either killing people or being merciful and taking them as slaves. If you insisted on having them as owned servants, you STILL had to treat them well. They were to be treated as hired servants AND NONE of them were to be kidnapped (Exodus 21:16). If an Israelite sold themselves as an indentured servant to a foreigner living in the land, it was the responsibility of the community to make sure they were not mistreated. And they still went free at Jubilee. No loopholes for foreigners AND the foreigners weren’t to be cheated. They got a proper value just like everyone else – no selling the year before Jubilee and saying nothing.

The overarching principle here is that God owned the Israelites. He brought them out of Egypt and purchased them through that deliverance. They were HIS slaves. One to another, they were to be considered FREE people. After all, only FREE people could have a rest and God commanded MUCH rest. Weekly rest, year of rest, and Jubilee rest of rests in a repeating cycle of sevens. They were to never forget the rest and freedom which were a RIGHT as people belonging to God.

If they didn’t, they would never understand the sacrifice of the Lamb to take away the sins of the people and free them from the bondage to sin and death. They would never understand their rights when God gave them the opportunity to become His children (Galatians 3:26-29).

Summary

Key Players: God, Moses

Key Themes: Sabbath, Freedom

Key Verse(s): Leviticus 25:1-2, 55